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What is possessiveness?
A person who exerts control on his desires arranges his life with economy and precision. As soon as the flow of desires cease, his life becomes controlled and limited. He is then unaffected by the craving for objects of luxury and remains content with the objects of bare necessity.
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Unnecessary accumulation is a sin, a wrong-doing not just in a religious context, but in a social and national context as well. The conflicts prevalent in society and nation are largely due to the tendency to accumulate. As the wealthy begin to hoard more and more, resources are depleted, thereby causing inflation. The ordinary man on the street cannot afford even his basic requirements due to the rise in prices. Thus the country is divided into two sects the rich and the poor, or the capitalists and the communists. Communism hasn't sprung out of nowhere. The extreme situation of haves and have-nots has given birth to communism. Just like the natural elements, even food, water and clothing should be equally available to all.
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No thinker is divided on this issue. Jainism states that the root cause of sin, irreligion and conflict is excessive accumulation. He who accumulates objects of luxury and uses them just for himself, not distributing them evenly, cannot ever find peace. According to Lord Mahāvīra:
One who does not distribute wisely cannot attain liberation.8
Peace lies not in self-satiation but in self sacrifice; not in receiving, but in giving; not in accumulation, but in relinquishing. He who is caught in the maze of accumulation cannot ever knock on the gates of liberation.
All great thinkers have categorized the tendency of possessiveness as an undesirable quality. The great poet and dramatist Shakespeare states unequivocally, "Gold is worse poison to a man's soul than any mortal drug." Christ taught in his sermons, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."
8 asamvibhāgi na hu tassa mukkho - Daśvaikālika Sutra
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